Are hiking poles worth it? After years of using trekking poles on everything from day hikes to long-distance routes, I think they are absolutely worth carrying for steep terrain, long descents, river crossings, heavy packs, or whenever your knees and feet start complaining. That said, I still don’t use them for every mile I walk.
Are Hiking Poles Worth It?
For me, yes. Hiking poles are worth it because they provide extra support when you need it without adding much weight to your kit.
Younger, fit hikers walking easy trails may not feel much benefit from using poles all day. But on steep descents, uneven ground, long-distance hikes, river crossings, or whenever your knees, ankles or feet start hurting, having two extra points of contact with the ground can make a huge difference.
Research also supports some of the benefits hikers feel in practice. Trekking poles can reduce loading on the lower body during downhill walking and redistribute some of the effort to your upper body. They don’t magically make hiking effortless, but they can make difficult terrain feel more controlled.
I often carry poles even when I don’t expect to use them constantly. They come in handy for much more than simply walking: crossing streams, testing mud depth, pushing vegetation aside, supporting tarps and shelters, and providing emergency support if you pick up an injury.
If weight is your main concern, modern carbon poles can be incredibly light. The BLACK DIAMOND Distance Carbon Z Poles, for example, weigh roughly 250–300 grams per pair depending on the length and fold into three sections for easy storage.
Pros
- Better balance and stability
- Helps on steep descents
- Useful with sore knees or feet
- Helpful for stream crossings
- Can support tarps and shelters
Cons
- Adds extra weight
- Keeps your hands occupied
- Can hinder scrambling
- Often unnecessary on easy trails
- Good poles can be expensive
My Experience Using Hiking Poles
I don’t use hiking poles every minute of every hike. In fact, on easy ground they often stay strapped to the outside of my backpack.
Where I really appreciate them is when the terrain gets steep, slippery or tiring.
The best example was during a 205-mile hike when, on day three, I developed the worst plantar fasciitis I have ever experienced. Without hiking poles to take some of the load off my foot, I genuinely don’t think I would have been able to continue the hike.
That experience changed the way I look at poles. Even if you don’t use them for 70% of a walk, they can become incredibly valuable for the other 30%.
7 Advantages of Hiking Poles
There are lots of reasons to carry hiking poles beyond simply helping bad knees. These are the seven benefits I notice most when using them.
1. Provide Joint Support
Hiking poles can reduce some of the load going through your knees and lower body, particularly on long or steep descents.
This is probably the biggest reason I use them.
When your knees, ankles or feet start hurting halfway through a hike, poles allow you to transfer some of your bodyweight through your arms instead of asking your legs to absorb every impact.
They are particularly useful when carrying a heavy backpack because the extra weight exaggerates the forces going through your joints.
If you’ve ever developed knee or ankle pain several miles from the end of a route, you will immediately understand why having two extra supports can be so useful.
2. Improve Balance
Trekking poles give you additional points of contact with the ground, which can dramatically improve balance on uneven terrain.
I often use the pole to test a foothold before putting my full weight onto it. This is especially useful on slippery rocks, loose ground, mud and steep descents.
Even one pole can make a noticeable difference. Two hiking poles are better than one for maximum stability, but if I need one hand free I will happily use a single pole.
3. Help Maintain a Walking Rhythm
Once you get used to using trekking poles, there is a natural rhythm to them.
Your opposite arm and leg move together so the pole touches down at roughly the same time as the opposite foot. After a while you stop thinking about it.
On long-distance hikes I find this rhythm helps me maintain a steady pace rather than constantly changing stride.
It can also encourage you to keep your upper body moving instead of allowing your shoulders and arms to remain completely static for hours.
4. Spread the Effort Across Your Body
One of the most useful things poles do is involve your upper body in walking.
Instead of your legs doing absolutely everything, your arms, shoulders and upper body can contribute some of the effort.
That doesn’t necessarily mean you suddenly use less energy overall, but it can make your legs feel less overloaded and help reduce local fatigue over long distances.
Poles can also help establish a consistent walking rhythm, which is one reason many long-distance hikers and trail runners use them.
5. Useful for Shelters and Other Jobs
One of my favorite things about hiking poles is how many other jobs they can do.
Adjustable poles can replace dedicated tent or tarp poles in some lightweight shelter setups, which means one piece of equipment performs two jobs.
Even when I’m camping with a normal tent, I regularly use a hiking pole to prop the door open and create a small porch canopy for cooking or simply sitting underneath.
I’ve also used poles for testing mud, moving branches, reaching things, clearing vegetation and generally poking things I don’t want to touch with my hands.
For backpacking, I always like equipment that earns its place by doing more than one job.
6. Crossing Streams
This is one of the situations where poles can go from being optional to extremely useful.
Even relatively shallow moving water can be surprisingly powerful. When crossing a stream, I use a hiking pole almost like a movable handrail.
You can plant the pole upstream, check the depth and stability of the riverbed, then move one foot at a time while maintaining three points of contact.
It is considerably more reassuring than trying to balance across slippery rocks with nothing to hold onto.
7. Moving Brush and Vegetation
I regularly use hiking poles to move wet vegetation away from my legs on overgrown trails.
After rain, long grass and plants can soak your trousers and footwear surprisingly quickly. A pole lets you push vegetation aside before walking through it.
They are also useful around brambles and thorn bushes. I can hold a branch away from the trail while walking past rather than grabbing it with my hand.
Just be sensible with lightweight carbon poles. They are designed primarily for supporting loads along the shaft, not being swung around like a machete.
4 Disadvantages of Hiking Poles
I like hiking poles, but there are definitely situations where they become annoying. These are the main downsides I’ve found.
1. Additional Weight
Carrying hiking poles adds weight, and if they spend the entire hike strapped to your backpack that weight is effectively wasted.
This matters most for ultralight backpackers who obsess over every gram.
Modern carbon poles reduce this problem significantly. A lightweight pair can weigh less than 300 grams, which I think is a reasonable penalty for something that can become extremely useful if you develop knee, ankle or foot pain.
If I know I’m walking a completely flat, easy day route, however, I sometimes leave them behind.
2. Your Hands Are Occupied
This is probably the thing that annoys me most about using poles continuously.
Your hands are occupied.
Something as simple as getting your phone out, adjusting your jacket or grabbing food becomes slightly more awkward. If your hands are through the wrist straps, you then have to remove them or hold both poles awkwardly in one hand.
On terrain where I constantly need my hands, I often collapse the poles and attach them to my backpack instead.
3. They Can Become a Hindrance on Rocky Terrain
There are situations where poles actually get in the way.
Scrambling, climbing over rocks and moving through very dense woodland are good examples.
The pole tips can slip between rocks, get caught in vegetation or simply prevent you from using your hands when you need them.
When terrain becomes too technical for two poles but I still want some support, I often use one pole and keep my other hand free.
4. Good Poles Can Be Expensive
Quality trekking poles from brands such as Black Diamond and Leki aren’t cheap.
Carbon fiber, compact folding mechanisms, cork grips and sophisticated locking systems all add cost.
You don’t necessarily need expensive poles to discover whether you like using them, though. A basic pair is perfectly adequate for experimenting before spending serious money on an ultralight set.
If I were buying premium poles, I would prioritize low weight, comfortable grips and a reliable folding or locking mechanism over unnecessary features.
Who Benefits Most From Hiking Poles?
Almost anyone can use trekking poles, but some hikers get considerably more value from them than others.
Long-Distance Hikers
The longer I walk, the more useful poles become.
On a short walk, small aches and fatigue aren’t normally a problem. After multiple long days, every little reduction in impact and improvement in stability becomes more noticeable.
This is one reason trekking poles are so common among thru-hikers.
Hikers With Knee, Ankle or Foot Pain
If you already have troublesome joints or occasionally develop pain on long walks, poles are one of the easiest pieces of equipment to carry as backup support.
My plantar fasciitis experience on the 205-mile hike is a good example. I wasn’t carrying poles specifically for an injury, but once the injury appeared they became one of the most important things I had with me.
Older Hikers
I think hiking poles become increasingly useful as you get older.
Balance, joint comfort and stability become more important, and poles provide all three without dramatically changing the way you hike.
That doesn’t mean they’re only for older people. I used them long before I needed them for joint support and still found them useful on difficult terrain.
Hikers Carrying Heavy Packs
A heavy backpack changes your center of gravity and increases the load going through your legs.
Poles give you more points of contact with the ground, which can be especially useful when descending steep trails with a full backpack.
Hikers on Steep or Technical Trails
If most of your hiking takes place on smooth, flat paths, you may get very little benefit from poles.
On mountain trails with loose rock, steep descents, mud and uneven ground, their value becomes much more obvious.
When Hiking Poles Probably Aren’t Worth It
I wouldn’t tell everyone to carry trekking poles on every walk.
If you’re fit, comfortable on your feet and walking a short, flat, well-maintained trail, they may spend the entire day strapped to your backpack.
They can also become annoying on routes involving lots of scrambling where you constantly need your hands.
This is why I prefer lightweight folding poles. I can use them when the terrain justifies it and pack them away when it doesn’t.
How I Carry Hiking Poles When I’m Not Using Them
Most of the time I keep my poles strapped to the outside of my backpack so I can access them quickly.
I prefer this to putting them inside because pole tips can be sharp and dirty, and I don’t want them rubbing against lightweight backpack fabric.
Most hiking poles come with rubber tip covers, but I seem to lose mine within a few weeks.
If your backpack has dedicated trekking-pole loops, use them. Otherwise, side compression straps usually work well.
For this reason I also prefer folding or telescopic poles that collapse into a reasonably short package rather than fixed-length designs for normal hiking.
One Hiking Pole or Two?
If I know I’m going to use poles for most of a hike, I prefer two.
Two poles provide better balance, spread the effort evenly across both sides of your body and are particularly useful on long descents.
There are plenty of situations where I use only one, though.
If the trail becomes rocky and I want one hand free, or I simply need a little extra support rather than maximum stability, one pole works perfectly well.
I’ve covered the differences in more detail in my guide to using one or two trekking poles.
Are Hiking Poles Really Worth It?
For me, hiking poles are absolutely worth owning, but that doesn’t mean I use them for every step of every hike.
On easy terrain they often stay strapped to my backpack. As soon as the trail gets steep, slippery or technical, or my knees and feet start becoming tired, I am very glad I carried them.
They are especially valuable on long hikes because tired legs make balance worse and small aches can develop into genuine injuries over multiple days.
The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that hiking poles are often most valuable when you weren’t expecting to need them. My plantar fasciitis on that 205-mile hike is the perfect example: I could have happily walked without poles at the start, but by day three they were helping me continue.
If you’re unsure whether you’ll use them, start with an inexpensive or borrowed pair and try them on a proper hilly walk.
You may decide you prefer hiking with your hands free most of the time, which is completely reasonable.
But for me, the combination of extra stability, joint support, versatility and emergency usefulness easily justifies carrying a lightweight pair.
